Mildura program; inaugural Liminal Festival; new Queensland poetry festival; Words on the Waves bestsellers

Mildura Writers Festival has announced the program for its 2024 festival, running from 18 to 21 July. Guests include Christos Tsiolkas, Charlotte Wood, Nam Le, Melissa Lucashenko, Stan Grant, Julie Janson, Marjon Mossammaparast, Gareth Morgan and Joseph Abbou. Grant will headline the festival with an event in discussion with Maxine McKew on opening night, while Tsiolkas will deliver the annual Murray Talk, dedicated to the memory of festival patron Les Murray and ‘the enduring vitality of the Murray River’. Events will cover a range of genres and topics, and will include readings of contemporary and traditional poetry, author interviews, and panel discussions covering themes of identity, Australian history, mysticism and place-making. More information is on the Mildura Writers Festival website.

The Wheeler Centre has announced the program for the inaugural Liminal Festival for writers and readers, running from 2 to 4 August. Events will span conversations on language under occupation, the future of novels in Australia, and the functions of literary criticism in the 21st century, as well as provocations into the transformation of poetry, and the process of comic making, among other topics. The festival will open with an event featuring readings from Susie Anderson, Manisha Anjali, Evelyn Araluen, Brian Castro, Bella Li, Jennifer Nguyen, Mykaela Saunders and Michael Sun. Other festival guests include Lynda Ng, Jessica Au, André Dao, Hasib Hourani, Lucy Van, Eda Gunaydin, Cher Tan, Andrew Brooks and Elena Gomez. More information is on the Wheeler Centre website.

Queensland Writers Centre (QWC) has announced a new poetry festival, QPoetry, running from 9 to 10 August. The weekend festival, to be held at the Judith Wright Arts Centre, will include the launch of the Queensland Poetry Awards, with readings by Jarad Bruinstroop, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Adam Brannigan and Madeleine Dale. Other events include panels, interactive workshops and readings, as well as the QPoetry! x Youth Writing Saturday program of events and workshops for writers and poets aged 10–20. More information is on the QWC website.

Words on the Waves Festival, which ran on the NSW Central Coast from 29 May to 3 June, recorded more than 5000 attendees—an increase of about 20% on numbers from last year. More than 1000 local primary and high school students also attended the festival’s schools’ program. According to festival bookseller BookFace Erina, the bestselling titles were:

• Your Time Starts Now (Julie Goodwin, Ebury)
• Death of a Foreign Gentleman (Steve Carroll, Fourth Estate)
• Finding My Bella Vita (Pia Miranda, Hachette)
• The Work (Bri Lee, A&U)
• Hope (Rosie Batty, HarperCollins)
• Black Duck (Bruce Pascoe, T&H)
• The Space Between the Stars (Indira Naidoo, Murdoch Books)
• Time to Reboot (Carla Wilshire, Monash)
• The Last Daughter (Brenda Matthews, Text)
• Red River Road (Anna Downes, Affirm)
• Free (Meg Keneally, Echo)
• The Axeman’s Carnival (Catherine Chidgey, Europa)
• Cool Water (Myfanwy Jones, Hachette)
• Dreamers and Schemers (Frank Bongiorno, Black Inc.)
• Faking It (Toby Walsh, Black Inc.)
• The Cop Who Fell to Earth (Craig Semple, Echo)
• Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (Benjamin Stevenson, Michael Joseph)
• I’ll Let Myself In (Hannah Diviney, A&U).

Category: Local news